Check Thief Hits Victims For $10,000

The checks were in the mail, and that was the problem for county residents who were robbed when a thief dipped into their bank accounts using checks that he stole from their mailboxes.

Since January, the unidentified thief has stolen more than $10,000 from bank accounts. He forged checks torn out of the backs of checkbooks that banks had sent to the homes of their customers.

Police know what the thief looks like, after studying hours of bank transactions that were recorded on camera.

``We`ve got pictures of him doing it,`` said Detective Chris Reid of the Palm Beach County Sheriff`s Office. He is suspected of other check-forgings in central Florida, including Seminole and Orange counties and the cities of Maitland, Winter Park and Altamonte Springs, she said.

Locally, the man has taken money from 8 to 10 accounts, she said. He tends to withdraw cash in amounts of hundreds of dollars to $1,000 at a time, she said.

Generally, victims have not discovered the crime until they have received their bank statements showing withdrawals they never made, she said.

The suspect, who has gone by the names Paul Logan and Christopher Duston, presented false identification to bank tellers to get his money, Reid said.

Reid began working on the case a month ago in cooperation with federal postal investigators, she said.

They tracked the suspect by drawing a link among the dates the checks were delivered, the dates of the withdrawals and the recorded bank transactions, she said.

The most recent check-forging was on Monday at the Barnett Bank at 45th Street and Military Trail.